Unconventional Uses For Your Microwave

Living on my own with just my cat, I do find meal times can bring out the laziness within me. When you’re eating for one the last thing you want to do is crack out the pots and pans and start cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Over the past year or two my microwave has become my kitchen best friend and I’m forever finding new foods to zap in it alongside clever microwave hacks to save me time and effort. Yes I am a lazy chef but at the same time that just means there’s more time to enjoy the food, right? I’ve become quite used to experimenting with my microwave, but not just for my evening meals (which is usually broccoli, Tilda rice in a fancy flavour and usually a salmon fillet, all cooked in my electric box of dreams). Whether you have a bargain microwave you caught in the sale, or a built in microwave like one of these, I’ve learnt that microwave’s can be used for a while host of unconventional things.

Unconventional Uses For Your Microwave:

Get Rid of Unwanted Nose Hair: Ooooh that one sounds gross doesn’t it? And not many ladies will probably suffer from this problem. But did you know that Nads do a Nose Hair Wax, which you can also use to remove clogged pores on your nose too. I know about this stuff because one of my friends (who doesn’t own a microwave) had to come around and try it out after he’d bought some! It seems really simple, if not slightly painful, to get rid of all your unwanted nasal fluff. You simply pop it in for a few minutes and use one of those special ‘nose hair removal sticks’ to plug up your nostril with the wax. Leave for a few moments and RIP IT OUT. I would post a picture of the result, but it look really, really gross. Let’s just say if you know a man who has a particularly fluffy nose this would be an ideal gift.

Soothe Aching Muscles: If you’re feeling a bit achey from the gym or other forms of exercise, you will sing the praises of a hot compress until the cow come home. Because I’m a frugal kinda gal, I don’t generally have my hot water turned on a majority of the time. So unless I want to wait for around 3 hours for my water tank to kick in and heat up, or boil the kettle, the quickest way to do this is to grab a hand towel or small flannel and dampen it under the tap then throw it in to the microwave for a minute or so. This feels soooo good, because if you roll the towel up like a swiss roll the microwave warms from the inside so the outer layers are just the right temperature to hold on your skin.

Help A Charity: There are a lot of ways to help charities nowadays, but one way you can help with the aid of your microwave is to remove stamps from envelopes! A lot of charities now are collecting postage stamps, you can find some examples of animal charities doing this scheme here. Charities ‘make money’ from used stamps by selling them to collectors. So the better condition the stamp is in, the more you will help your chosen charity. Although they do accept stamps which are torn off the envelope, you can neatly remove them by just popping a few drops of water on the stamp and popping in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. The stamp can then be removed really easily ready to send off!

Make a Cappuccino: Ok, maybe not the cappuccino itself, you’l need a kettle and some coffee for that. But you can create the Starbz frothy milk effect for yourself at home without fancy machines or whirly swirling devices. Simply grab an old (clean) jar and pour enough milk in for your cup size of choice. Be sure not to fill it over half way up though as you need room for the froth. Pop the lid on and shake it like a polaroid picture until you see the milk get all frothy and bubbly and yum, then remove the lid (especially if it is metal, metal in the microwave is a NO!) then pop it in to the microwave for around 30-40 seconds. Make sure it’s warm enough, but not too hot (we don’t want burnt tongues!) and pour it over your freshly made coffee for a lovely creamy cappuccino delight.

Bake a Cake: The biggest craze in microwave cooking in recent years was the cake in a mug recipe and technique, which takes the lengthy process out of baking a cake the ‘old fashioned’ way. I actually learnt about cooking cakes in microwaves when I was living in halls at Uni around 6 years ago. That didn’t end well though, as one of my cakes ended up burning completely black in the centre and remaining goo on the outside. We couldn’t stop the smoke billowing off it so in the end we had to throw it out of the 2nd floor window to avoid the fire alarms going off. The guys in the ground floor halls panicked when they saw it though and thought it was some kind of bomb(?!?!), so ended up throwing a load of water out on it and informing the halls warden, hahahaha. If you want to avoid such ridiculous escapades in microwave cake baking, then please follow a proper recipe such as this one from BBC Good Food.

Hello, I’m Terri Lowe.

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About Hello Terri Lowe // UK Music, Food and Culture Blog

A UK Music, Food and Culture Blog, based in Staffordshire. Often spotted on adventures in Manchester, Liverpool, London or Birmingham at the weekends, you can expect to see a little bit of everything from festivals to food and everything in-between. When not blogging, you can find me having a nice sit down with my three cats, Stevie, Kitty and Dot. Don’t forget to take a look at my ‘about‘ page if you’re interested in collaborating on any exciting opportunities that you think would be a good fit!